I am so thankful to be a missionary

Mama
Hola Presidente!!

I am doing well. We are seeing some good pruebas of our faith here in our sector but we are working on ideas and seeking the revelation to really find the escogidos. I am grateful to be here. When I first got the call that I would be here for 6 months in one sector I wasn't to excited. I knew it was what the Lord needed but I wasn't to happy but now as time has gone on in this change I am grateful to be here. It has not been the easiest change but the one I needed to grow and learn what the Lord truly desires of me. Hermana Ukle is a rock star. She is doing really well and progressing. She is happy to be a missionary. Having a lot of homesickness in these past couple weeks but finally talked to me about it and I think she is doing a lot better. We are up to date on 12 semanas and it is helping both of us learn so much it really is a great tool we have as missionaries.

I was studying in the manual Misional today. And I am just so grateful for that little white book. It truly helps us have success as missionaries if we are just willing to follow the rules of the mission. Obedience really brings blessings and I have seen it over and over in the mission. I know that this is the Church of Jesus Christ. I know that Joseph Smith was truly a prophet of God chosen to restore his Gospel to this earth. I know the Book of Mormon changes lives because of the power of God which it holds. I am so thankful to be a missionary and love this Gospel with my whole heart and am changing every day to become better than I was yesterday.
Thanks truly for all you do Presidente.
Hermana Hull

Well that is my email to my mission president this week. A member who has a son on a mission told me that he asked his son to do that each week and so i decided to share it with you this week. It is a good way to see what i do as a missionary each week.

WOW sounds like a full week of travel for you guys and that you were able to have so much fun. I had no idea that the Provo temple was so close to being done and dedicated. That is super legit. I remember when we went to stadium of fire with Marvin and Lauralee and we ended up going to see it and it seemed like it was just being started. That wasn't to long ago and now is being dedicated. That is so exciting to have another temple on the earth. The jovenes(youth) of our ward got to go this week and so that was super fun to see all the excitement about the temple and a lot of members asked me about the ´´Utah´´ temple or Salt Lake. They are all very surprised when I say there are many more that just that one and that one is 5-10 minutes away from my house. That is such a huge blessing that we have to have the temple so close to our home and when it is closed for cleaning we can go to many others within just an hour. I love the temple and miss it a ton but am excited also to be able to go back after my mission. I know it is the house of the Lord and that he truly resides there. I know the covenants that we make there are not only for the time we have on this earth but forever and make it possible to be with our families for the eternities. I just love it.

So Jasmine is engaged! That is super exciting and surprising. But I am so happy and excited for her.

So this week you asked about Carnaval. We had to stay in on those days unless we had a cita fija(appointments). So on Tuesday we didn't get to go out because we called all the citas to make sure they would be home but all of them had forgot and had gone on vacation. It was a good day of cleaning and study. But we did ´´play´´ Carnaval. That is how they put it that they play it. We had one cita on Monday with the familia Zambrano and we had a fight with what is called "carioca". It is a kind of spray foamy thing that comes in a can like spray paint that you just spray. It was super fun to do and play and it doesn't get you as dirty as eggs and flour :D

I am just so blessed to be a missionary here in Ecuador at this time. I truly love my calling as a missionary at this time. It is definitely the hardest thing I have ever done but the best thing for me for sure. I have changed and grown so much and continue to each day. I see my weaknesses but I am learning every day of the power of the Atonement and that is such a blessing to me to be able to grow and change through this time of my life so that I can be an even better disciple of Christ and daughter of God. I love missionary life so much and am so thankful to be here at this time doing this wonderful work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Oh, Anita is a member that I just love a ton. She gave us lunch yesterday because our mamita fell through and she just wanted to say hi and that she loves you and is grateful to you that you have let me come on my mission. She is great!!

Love you tons and hope you have a wonderful week! Pray for our sector and that we can find new people. We are seeing this a bit and it is helping us build our faith more and so that would be awesome!!
LOVE YOU TONS!!!
Hermana Hull

Sorry forgot a subject......Elder Holland is coming this week. He is coming Wednesday so I will write more about that next week.... :D Love you

Eggs and Flour for Carnaval

Carnaval Mess with Zambranos

Wet Hermanas

Portrait of Hermana Hull

Carnaval....never believe it!

Mama!! Sounds like you have had a wonderful week and will have a wonderful weekend this next one with visiting Jill and her family!! That will be fun!!

Well this week for me was a good one but first I want to type a quote from Elder Holland that I found this week about missions.

The Atonement and the Missionary
Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?

I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.

Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price.

For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.

If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,” 11 then little wonder that salvation is not an easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way.

When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

That just really stood out to me this week and I know it is true!!!

So this week has been a good normal week up until this weekend, that started Carnaval. Which is this crazy festival that happens every year that makes us missionaries have to stay inside. I mean it is crazy what they do they have parades and stuff that they have like they have in Rio. It is crazy and then they go and play Carnaval which is kind of like a giant water fight in all of Ecuador but they also add espuma which is foam, flour and eggs and in different parts whatever you can find, but it is fun and I am enjoying it. Except for the egg and flour that Hermano Zambrano put in my hair. That was gross. But you know I got him back just a little. So that is about my week. I am sorry it wasn't to much about what happened to me I just loved this quote a ton and wanted to share.

I love you a ton and hope you have a wonderful week and know that I pray for you often and care about how you are doing!!! Love you tons and tons and tons more. I am doing well and my comp is too and we are just loving the life of the missionary. It is the best one I could have and definitely can't imagine my life without it!!!

LOVE YOU!! HERMANA HULL

Teaching with Pres. Richardson's Daughter

Carnaval Parade

Parade

Flour and Eggs for Carnaval Fun!?

What a mess!

BLT for Lunch made by Hermana Hull

The Atonement is so Powerful!!!

Mama and all ya´ll!!

Wow wow wow wow wow!! Why didn't winter happen like that last year too. I sure do miss that fluffy white stuff that falls from the sky. It is so pretty and breath taking. I think I will have to live somewhere with the four seasons for the rest of my life unless I decided to live in Ecuador after my mission then I would just have to visit Utah a lot during the winter :D

I totally forgot about the whole basketball thing that goes on during the winter. I hope that they are doing well in their games! I love basketball and am excited to play more when I get home. But I mean that and Ultimate. Haha but they can wait!

My feet are doing better and my knee is feeling good but I am in an ankle brace. But please DON'T WORRY. I just twisted my ankle a little in a hole while I was walking. But it is getting better quickly and I am up and working hard!! :D

So this past Saturday was just the best thing of my life. Jenifer was baptised. It was literally a miracle to witness. She is the first baptism here in Carcelen Alto for about 5 months and first convert that wasn't a child that was 9 in 9 months. Those are great and we really needed it for the sector and the work to keep moving forward here. Not only that but she has made covenants with her Father in Heaven and now has that wonderful blessing of the Holy Ghost with her for always is she stays worthy.

The baptism was just so filled with the Spirit and just the best ever. But it came with a lot of work. The font was absolutely disgusting while we prepared to fill it up. So the baptism that the Elders had 2 months ago someone forgot to unplug the font and the Elders saw it the day before and unplugged it but it was covered in this yellow slime that smelled like dead skunk in the middle of the road. So we had to clean that out in time to start filling it to have all we needed done, but then all the sudden the water started to come out RED. WHAT?!?! So we had to clean it out again but then finally it all worked out and we were able to get it filled and it was all worth it to hear her testimony about how she felt something that she didn't know she was missing and to see her smile was just the bestest and then Sunday was super special with her confirmation too!!

I just love the power of the Atonement. The people change through Christ. It is nothing to do with me or what I am doing here. But with Christ and the enabling power and his church and truth, they truly change. It is amazing how far people come but when they do they can change with him when they know it is true in just a couple weeks. I know that the Atonement is what carries me through everyday and after what we can do it is what continues to carry us through it all. Sometimes I imagine us like Elder Holland describe in his talk in the conference of last April. We are there and falling and we have just a hold of a slippery rock and we are doing all we can to try and pull ourselves up but we can't, our muscles are cramping and there is just nothing left in them and then we give our last effort and know if we don't do it now we can't do it and so we give what we have left and then those hands with marks of his sacrifice grab our wrists and pull us up and carry us to safety to then make sure that we are okay and knows that he is there. He doesn't leave us. He was always there. He just needed us to give our all and then he is able to give us his power to make it to his safety. I just love the Atonement and don't understand it perfectly for nothing. But i am learning and that is what i love.!!

Love you so much and hope you all have a wonderful week!! You are the bestest!!
love you
Hermana Hull


PS Here is an awesome talk from last conference about the atonement!
Strengthened by the Atonement of Jesus Christ
By Elder Dallin H. Oaks
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

6 months would have thought....

Hey Mom!!

So this week sounds crazy. I am going to miss Nutty too!! I mean it won't really sink in until I get home but hearing this news has made me cry. She was a crazy one but I love her!! But I know I will be seeing her again!!

That is so good you could see the Stahl's. I was actually thinking about them this past week and trying to figure out how old Emi is. How old is she?? That has got to be rough to be deployed. How long will he be there? I am just happy you guys are there, that you can help babysit them cute kids that are just super special and that I love a ton!!!

Well this week for me was filled with lots of good and craziness. We had changes yesterday......nothing changed. This is the first time I will be with a companion for 12 weeks instead of 6! Kind of crazy to think about. But what is even crazier is that I am still here in Carcelen. Which means by the end of this change I will have been here for 6 months. One third of my mission....as long as I was in Otavalo. I mean that is crazy but it is what the Lord needs and so I am down with it!! It will be fun because I know the people very well. I didn't know what to expect with changes so I got pictures with most the members and stuff so I was prepared, so when I do end up getting changes I will be set! :D

BUT BEST PART OF THE WEEK......DRUM ROLL....... JENIFER IS GETTING BAPTISED THIS SATURDAY!! She passed her entrevista(interview). We weren't sure what was going to happen but she got her answer and was like Hermanas I WANT TO BE BAPTISED!! It was after we taught the Plan of Salvation and you have to have all the lessons before your interview and so we had to do some sweet planning and we got it all done on time. Man I am so excited because she is so ready.

Sorry this is a bit short. Had to do some papers for the mission and send them in.
Love you tons and hope you have a great week!!!
LOVE YOU
Hermana HUll

PS I will explain the pics next week or you can just guess!!

Well you are never going to guess who is coming to visit us.....

Mama,

Sounds like kind of a stressful week but I am happy you could end it with an awesome day celebrating an awesome person named JADEN!! I can't believe he is 17...and so big....how tall is he like 7 feet now. Can't say little brother anymore but only younger....just kidding he will always be my little brother!!!

You know I understand your week perfectly, feeling a bit off. I had one too. I mean it is a little different in the mission but mom I understand. Don't worry all things will work out. I mean we have the gospel and the love of God. Romans 8:31 and Moroni 7:33.... Just a few pick me ups!!

So this week was full of meetings and stuff. We had our monthly capacitacion with Presidente Tuesday and then Wednesday district and zone meeting and then Thursday we had Elder Carlos A. Godoy of the 1st quorum of the Seventy come talk to us. It was absolutely amazing and just the best ever because we were able to learn so many things that we can put into practice now and help us, help our sectors even better. I love it!!

Huge announcement from Presidente this week........like HUGE!! In the month of February our mission gets a special visit that we are supppppppppppeeeeeeeerrrrrr and I mean super excited about........Elder Jeffery R. Holland is coming to our mission to talk to us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are being super blessed and I am sooooooo excited!! Let you know more about it when it happens.

So other than that we just worked liked normal this week and had an amazing Sunday. Because after months and months of working with the familia Zambranos they were rescued. We took them to their interview Thursday night which in and of itself was a huge miracle and then they came to church yesterday on time (first time ever) which made them active members of the church again!!!! HUGE MIRACLE after tons of work and love and seeing some very hard things they are happy have goals to baptize Stefi in March and get sealed the end of the year!! WOOOOHOOOO!!!
Jenifer is doing really well to. She is amazing and her family has put her through a lot and she is just so prepared!! We are working to find even more people so please keep us in your prayers to be able to find the ones that need this precious gospel!!

Funny story.... So we always prayer before we leave the house and we always pray in Spanish. I mean it is hard to pray in English now. So we knelt down and Hermana Ukle went ¨¨Heavenly Father.......WHAT!?!?!¨¨ We both just kind of laughed and felt awkward because we don't pray in English and it caught us both way off guard!!

Love you all a ton!! Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 is a great scripture about really there is time for everything and God truly knows what we need!!

LOVE YOU A TON!!!

Hermana Hull

PS My feet aren't perfect yet but are getting there. They don't itch anymore usually so that is good!! :D

Honey for Scones

Feeling cute

Ibambura Zone back together

Funny Faces

Hermana Hull, Jenifer, Gabriel and Jared

Lunch at the Mission Home

Elder Godoy from the Seventy teaching the missionaries

Familia Zambranos

Hermano Zambranos with Hermana Hull

Banana Split Party Pday

Aren´t we just so blessed!!

Mama,

Thanks so much for the lists of Jasmine and Jordan. They made my day. I was super excited to read them so thank you.

My feet are fine. I think it is something like the eczema on my shins and I have creams that seem to be helping but not at the rate I thought they would but all is well there. At least they don't itch as much any more. I was thinking about trying some oils too. I just don't know which ones so yeah.

That is cool about the missionaries in our Stake. I just thought there would  be more. But I guess we are from Utah huh?  not Ecuador and so it is a lot different there than it is here. I mean we have 20 missionaries in 1 stake here so ya know just a little different. :D

Sounds like you are having some good times to start of this new year. I thought about Florida also and can't believe it has been a year. I mean that is crazy. It seriously felt like yesterday. Well not really because of what happened yesterday but sorry. I am just being really literal right now. Sometimes too literal but you know it is what happens when you come on the mission. Or not maybe that is just me now I don't know my thoughts are just everywhere right now sorry.

Well this week in my life has been really good. Just about the same as any other missionary week. We contacted, taught, found, looked, studied and ate some good food :) I love the mission. There is so much that is the same each day but everyday is just so different. It is kind of crazy how much I love the mission. I just love talking and making friends and I get to do it everyday in a different language than my normal but then I not only get to be there friend and talk but I get to teach about the wonderful simple truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and help them find the joy and happiness that they can get from living it too!!

We met a lot of new people this week but I want to tell you about one in particular. Her name is Gabriela Toapanta. We were contacting. We have been contacting a lot. We need to find new investigators and that is one of the biggest ways we have been finding them. Our Zone leaders taught us an amazing way to contact with the Book of Mormon and so we have been able to get into lots of more houses. So we were using it and she let us in. We started with the normal who we are and why we are here. And then started in to leccion 1. She told us how she never lets anyone into her house. But just felt like she had to. She was practically bearing her testimony to us by the end of the lesson. She told us about her life and her two girls and how she doesn't have work because here in Ecuador it is super hard to find a job right now. She told us how she knows that God puts people into our lives for a reason at the specific time we need them and I can tell you I have not been in a more powerful lesson than that one. She was so ready to hear the gospel and never have I seen someone accept baptism like that. She was just like yes I will on that day. WOW: when you have times like that on the mission you really just know you are the instrument to bring the Holy Ghost to the people and he really is the true teacher!!

Also Jenifer is doing well. She came to church and loved it!! She is going to be strong, but she needs a lot of support of the members because she got to tell me about her life as we rode the bus to church yesterday and she has gone through so much and has no one but her 2 little boys. Please keep them in your prayers.

So we had our Stake Conference yesterday and boy was it powerful. We had Elder Taylor Godoy of the 70 here and wooooohooo wow. It was just so good not only for the people but for us missionaries too. He talked how we are part of the Sacred Nation of the Gospel and how we need to have our identification right. How he said that we identify ourselves is through how we live the Gospel. That there are so many things we can do that we can act like it or we really can live it. The whole basis of the Conference was our personal conversion. It was so powerful because that is truly one of the things as a missionary I am learning. There are different points of conversion. We can have a testimony and know the church is true but that isn't true conversion. It is when we have a testimony and then to put it into practice and living what you know to be true to then fortify and to add strength to the testimony you do have. Man i just love the Gospel.

Like I am truly convinced that I could be a missionary forever.....well not quite I think I would die quickly from being so tired all the time. I think that may be one of the reasons that us hermanas only get to serve for a year and a half because our bodies couldn't just take it for 2. But you know I have figured out I will be a missionary forever because I want to be and it may not be here in Ecuador but wherever I may go in this big world of awesomeness. Because I mean they do say...... Everything is awesome when your on the Lords team!!!!!!

I love you all a ton. Promise my thoughts will be more put together next week. I am just tired right now and really just keep typing but I think it put together a pretty good email but you know here is the best part just learned it from Hna Ukle

<(^.^)>  it is called a hug monster.....do you feel the love??

Love you soooooooooo much,
Hermana Hull

PS Pics of my life from today and this week....ice cream one is today! And well still not use to the milk on a shelf and in a bag......just kidding I LOVE IT!!!

Oh and my other pair of glasses broke so i am super grateful you got me two!! Love you!

Milk in a Bag on a Shelf

TP Choices

The New Year....2016...Can you believe it!?!?!?!

Mama

Sounds like you had such a wonderful, wonderful Christmas time and New Years Eve. Sounds like you had lots of people over and tons of fun and I love the pictures. They make me happy. Not going to lie when I first started the mission, pictures made me the most homesick because you know how much I love pictures and picture taking. But now it is just good to see you guys and how you are doing not only through words but through you smiles on your faces!!!!

I know that the whole thing about getting assigned your mission call is partly based on the mission president that you will be able to grow the most under and it is so true. President Richardson is amazing. I mean for the first little while it was hard to get use to the strictness of the mission because really our mission isn't like bad, so we aren't strict we just follow the missionary handbook. There are other missions that can listen to different music and such and just more chill but, really I would not want it any other way. President just expect obedience and when we are obedient I don't know how many times he has promised different blessings that are there waiting. I love President. He has helped me become so much more than I ever could have been.

I think that is super legit that Kaitlin is putting her papers in!! I mean the mission is the best thing ever!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tell her that it is the best and I call Ecuador Quito North as my guess.....the best mission in the world but wherever she gets called with be the perfect mission for her!!!!

Christmas was great!! We got to talk to you guys and had a couple lessons with members. We didn't have a big dinner with a member because the have their Christmas meal that is with like turkey and stuff at 12 am Christmas morning and so yeah, we were in bed and in the house a long time before that. I loved my gifts. We had a little tree and hung the stockings up. It was good. Didn't really feel like Christmas without snow but it was fun. We had to be in at 6 pm and just hung out open gifts, I cleaned the kitchen really well, and wrote in my journal about what happens here for Christmas. It is mostly just a family holiday and they eat a lot. They don't do anything on the 25th and lots of drinking and dancing.

For New Years we had to be in at 5 pm and we were glad for that one. They have what they call "Viudas" which are men dressed up as women and the go and dance in front of cars for money and it is quite disturbing because it is in the day. And then at night they shoot off fireworks which we heard and burn what they call the "ano viejo"(old year). They take some pants and shirts and stuff them with paper and other things to burn the old year and to get rid of all the bad that happened this year to prepare for the next year. That is cool but i didn't get to see it because we had to be inside and there is tons of music and dancing and of course drinking. We saw all the cops in the street the next day. And then at first no one is out and no one does anything because the party until like 4 in the morning.
What we did was our planemiento semenal and then talked and we bought Chinese to eat too!! Then because rootbeer doesn't exist here we got strawberry ice cream and Sprite and had those kinds of floats then just hung out and talked and were in bed by 10:30. But I woke up right at 11:59 and laid in bed for the New Year to come watched some fireworks out the window and then fell back asleep. Probably the most chill New Years I will ever have in my life!!!

Hermana Ukle is doing well. We have a person with fecha(baptism date). Her name is Jenifer. Please keep her in your prayers and especially pray for her to receive and answer about the Book of Mormon. She is great and we just found her and she really could be very strong, just lots of prayers would be super helpful. We are also finding new people everyday which are the miracles after the trial of my faith, that is for sure. With the last change and almost half of this change we haven't seen any progress and I got to be really stressed and doubting, wondering what I was doing wrong. But then we had a capacitacion(training) about how we look at the situation and our attitude. And I had just started feeling this way so through prayer and study I was able to really look at how much I have grown and now the blessing are flowing and we are just going to keep going to really help our sector progress.

I love putting goals now and have 10 for this year and would like to share them.
1 Find the family that is waiting for me
2 Really work on my personal conversion even more
3 Understand more fully the power of the Atonement
4 Speak the best Spanish possible
5 Truly become the consecrated missionary
6 Love until it hurts....even more....every thing
7 Focus on the now more....especially God´s hand in my daily life
8 Be a bit smarter about food choices
9 Return home with honor and truly changed
10 Find a job and get working hard to meet my goal to come back to Ecuador in 2017 and for school

I know the last 2 I am not going to really think about but I felt I needed to put them. I just love the fact that I can look and how much I progressed up until now in my mission and just want to keep going.

I love the mission so much and am so grateful for the blessings I receive everyday.

Funny story really quick.
So I was walking and saw some people throwing a football. Well in my brain i was like "what kind of ball is that?" "It looks kind of fun.....wait.....I think I know that......hmmmm. wait I do. That is a  football." I said the last part out loud. I couldn't even recognize a football. #mylifeinecuador

I love you all a ton and am so thankful for your support!!
Have a wonderful week a good time doing whatever you do
LoVe
Hermana Hull

PS I told my comp about our goats.....like everything about them......she laughed
PPS I don't need anything but I always like twixes ;)
PPPS I had a question about our ward and stake. So since there is a Logan, Utah mission are there more missionaries working in our stake or is there no difference that you know??

Mission Feet

Mission Toes

New Years Chinese Dinner

New Years Eve Float